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            As Yellowstone slowly drifts towards autumn, the last days of summer are just beginning to show signs of transformation.  Young aspens hint at fiery yellow.  Willows blend red, orange and gold.  The cottonwoods along Lamar River still hold their green leaves as the grass in the valley fades to brown.  Each day more changes appear.  By the end of the week snow will dust the mountain tops, and hillsides will become a collage of color.

            In some ways the Park is quieter this week than our spring trip.  The crowds are still here, but no wolves running back and forth to the den, no coyotes moving pups to a different den, no bears followed by tiny cubs as they forage in grassy meadows.  The Junction Butte Pack has remained near their den site in Little America and traveled across Lamar Valley through spring and summer.  In May, the pups were just beginning to emerge from the den.  Only one pup, a gray, survived from that litter, but watchers were delighted when the pack led four black puppies to the den area later in the spring, apparently a second litter from a different den.  The pups are now rambunctious and healthy, almost old enough to travel with the pack. 

            Each morning, we drove straight to Slough Creek to catch the wolves at their rendezvous site not far from a bison carcass lying in a bend of the creek.  The turnouts were jammed with vehicles, so we parked where we could find space and hiked in to get a better view.  When we arrived Sunday morning the wolves had left the carcass and bedded nearby.  We were able to find two black wolves and a gray west of the carcass in the hills above the creek.  The gray might have been 907F, but I didn’t notice a collar.  Ravens and a bald eagle were on the carcass and later a handsome, red/brown/tan coyote.  He was skittish, sensing the wolves nearby. 

            The time between 11 a.m. or noon and 6 or 7 when the sun begins to go down can be a sort of a dead zone for wildlife viewing when the animals retreat to the woods for shade and coolness.  We stopped at Round Prairie and were lucky to see a coyote hunting and a pronghorn buck.  The pronghorn marched straight toward us across the meadow and broke into a run.  He then stopped, scratching and pawing the ground, and rubbing his horns in the sage before taking off again. 

            The rest of the afternoon Tim fished Soda Butte Creek at Lower Barronette, Round Prairie and near Hikers Bridge while I hiked or just sat by the creek listening to the water.  How quiet it was in all those places.  I didn’t even see a bison. 

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